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Former FM: 'North Macedonia, welcome into our lives'

Former foreign minister Nikos Kotzias, one of the architects of the Prespes accord, welcomed the approval of the agreement by the Parliament in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on Friday, saying “history should be a school and not a prison.”

“I spoke with [PM] Zoran [Zaev] and [FM] Nikola [Dimitrov]. We remembered the difficulties, the tiredness, the tensions, the trust and the hopes we felt working on the agreement,” he said in a tweet.

“We dreamt of the common future of the two peoples. North Macedonia, welcome into our lives,” he added.

FYROM's Parliament passed an amendment to the constitution to rename the country “Republic of North Macedonia,” in line with an agreement with Greece to put an end to a 27-year-old dispute.

Eighty-one deputies in the 120-seat parliament voted in favor. Representatives of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, who opposed the agreement with Greece, boycotted the vote.

The countries struck the deal on the new name in June, but FYROM will start using it only after the parliament in Athens also ratifies the agreement.